Hemorrhage is one of the most common causes of preventable combat death in modern warfare. In response, efforts to create new and more effective and useful battlefield tourniquets has increased. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,469,099 is a Pneumatic Tourniquet described as a pneumatic tourniquet having an inflatable cuff, a pressurizing mechanism for pressurizing the cuff, a pressure relief mechanism for depressurizing the cuff, a pressure sensing mechanism for sensing the pressure to which the cuff is pressurized and a pressure regulator mechanism for selectably activating the pressurizing mechanism and the pressure relief means to maintain the cuff pressure near a selected pressure. Visual and audible alarm signals are triggered if the cuff pressure exceeds a cuff pressurization limit, if the cuff pressure falls below a cuff depressurization limit, or if the cuff has remained pressurized for, or in excess of a selected time period. A computer may be used to sense the cuff pressure and pressurized or depressurized the cuff as required to maintain the cuff pressure within upper and lower cuff pressure limits. However, this device is ill suited for wounds in the trunk/thigh junction as it does not have the ability to apply pressure to the junctional area.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,892,253 (the C-A-T tourniquet) is also an ill equipped tourniquet for applying pressure to a junctional wound. Specifically, this reference is designed for use when pressure is applied circumferentially. United States Patent Application 2010/0152770 describes a bleed out prevention system and method including an adjustable length attachment belt assembly which is passed around the body of a human being suspected of having an injured or severed major blood vessel where the adjustable length attachment belt assembly positions a plunger plate assembly over a location where compressive force can be applied to a portion of the major blood vessel which has not been injured or severed. However, this design is difficult to apply to a fallen patient, can only apply pressure to a single wound location, has several removable parts that can be lost in shipping, storage or use, includes straps that are prone to slipping out of place, does not have the ability to prevent the pressure points from loosening and does not allow pressure points to be modifiably positioning for differing body types and wound locations.
With body armor, there is a “weakness” where the body armor does not cover the junctional region and, therefore, wounds in this area have become more common. In fact, some studies report that with devices such as the C-A-T and the increased use of body armor, junctional wounds are now more likely to cause preventable combat death than wounds localized to limbs (including the complete loss of a limb). In fact, the Committee on Tactical Combat Casualty Care recently made junctional (truncal) tourniquets a research priority. This is particularly true given the fact that the Iliac and femoral artery as located in the junction between the leg and torso.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a junctional tourniquet that can be easily packaged and stored while allowing pressure to be applied to a plurality of wound sites.
It is another object of the present invention to have pressure pads that can be positioned along the strap to as needed cased upon the injured individual body type and wound location.